


Giggle at a Funeral

by illbehonest_ilie



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angie's old, Angst, I don't know, Mostly Dialogue, Peggy's dead, and 98 percent Cartinelli angst, if it is angst then, it's 2 percent Steggy angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 12:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3978481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illbehonest_ilie/pseuds/illbehonest_ilie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Angie goes to Peggy's funeral. Steve tries to understand who Angie was to Peggy; she was her almost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Giggle at a Funeral

Steve stayed back while everyone slowly began to leave. He wasn’t ready to leave. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye. 

A few people still lingered. Sharon talked to a few people as they left, but her attention was mostly on an old lady. It was a woman Steve didn’t recognise, but it was obvious that Sharon was comfortable with her- like they had known each other for years.

Steve turned around again, and faced the headstone. He tried to will it away. Maybe if he tried hard enough it wouldn’t be real, but it was real. Peggy was gone and there was nothing Steve could do to bring her back. 

Tears began to well in his eyes, but he held them back when he felt someone approaching. It was the old woman. Steve expected to see Sharon close behind the woman, but the woman came alone. She placed a small bouquet of violets in front of Peggy’s grave and stood close to Steve. 

Steve reached out and offered his arm for support.

“Thanks, Cap.” the woman said in response.

“You know who I am?”

“‘Course I do. You’re Captain America. American Hero. I saw you once in Passaic. And Sharon told me who you were.”

“Well, my name is actually Steve Rogers.”

“Nice to meet you Steve, I’m Angela Bellucci. But English here knew me as Angie Martinelli.”

“English?”

“Yeah, that was my nickname for her.”

“Peggy hated nicknames. At least ones that weren’t a variation of her name.”

“I guess that means I was special.”

“I guess it does. But I’m sorry, she never mentioned you.”

“I’m not surprised. I never talked about her either. It was too painful. I imagine it was the same for her.”

Steve smiled at Angie, but was confused by her statement. Why would talking about Peggy be painful for her, and why would it be the same for Peggy?

“May I ask why it was painful to talk about her? You don’t have to tell me anything, but I’m just curious.”

“We had a falling out in ‘48. We were close, and then we weren’t. Not much to say, really.”

“That can’t be it.”

Angie sighed. This wasn’t a conversation she thought she’d have today, let alone with Steve Rogers himself, but Angie told the story anyway.

“We met in ‘46. I was a waitress at an automat diner called The L&L, I worked there while I tried to make it big on Broadway. And that’s where I met Peggy. She was my best customer. Always polite, and was my best tipper. Even if she only had a ten cent cup of coffee, she’d still tip me at least fifty cents, sometimes more. She was too good to me. She even invited me to live with her in one of Howard Stark’s mansions. Granted it was her fault I lost my job and was kicked out of my old place, but still. She was great. And during my newfound unemployment, Peggy supported me 100% while I focused on trying to make it as an actress. And whenever I got a part, she was there with a rhubarb pie and bottle a schnapps and the same when I didn’t get a part. But then that all stopped. Something happened and Peggy began to focus everything on work. I was put on the back burner. It hurt. It broke my heart.”

Steve understood. 

“You loved her.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. This woman loved Peggy, but it seemed like Peggy didn’t feel the same.

“Never stopped. And I’ll always love her. Until my last day. Which, if I’m lucky, isn’t very far away.”

“And you fell out because she didn’t love you back?”

“Now, I never said that. Like I said she asked me to move in with her, we had only known each other for a little over six months. It was her fault I was left homeless, but she didn’t have to invite me to live with her. I coulda gone back home to my parents and she knew that, but she insisted. It made me question her feelings. And one night, after living together for a little over a year, she kissed me. We had a few drinks, she kissed me and everything changed after that. I think she was scared of her feelings for me. She began to basically ignore me after that. She still spoke to me, but it wasn’t the same.”

“And you left after that.”

“No, I stuck around for awhile longer. I hoped Peggy’d change her mind and stop being afraid, but when she didn’t I sorta took up drinking. I got drunk one night with an actor I was working with and I slept with him. I got pregnant and I felt ashamed. I felt like I betrayed Peggy, even though I knew I didn’t.”

“So, that’s why you left.”

“Honestly, it was only part of the reason. I mainly left because of you.”

“Me?”

“The whole time that I had known Peggy; you were all anyone ever talked about. You were all she ever talked about. You were the love of her life. It was like no one could live up to your shadow. And after that kiss, your shadow grew.”

“But she got married. She had to have loved him, otherwise why do it.”

“That’s a story I don’t know. Maybe it was out of love. Maybe it was obligation, we’ll never know.”

They were silent for awhile after that. Steve was still trying to process everything.

“And what happened to you after you left?”

“I went back to my parent’s. I had nowhere else to go. The father left for Hollywood after I told him I was pregnant.”

“Did you get married? You said Peggy knew you as Martinelli, but you said your name is Bellucci.”

“Yeah, I got married. Married Ricardo Bellucci. I knew him growing up. He was a good kid, and grew to be a good man. When my dad needed help with the auto repair shop, he stepped up. Which was funny because he didn’t even know what a carburetor was. He didn’t know anything about cars. I had to teach him everything I knew, but dad needed help and since my brothers were out getting mixed up in some awful business, he was the next best thing. He mostly helped with the books, he was real good with numbers.”

“And you loved him?”

“In a way, yes. He was sweet on me in high school, guess he still was because when I asked him to dinner he didn’t hesitate to say yes. And he didn’t run away when I told him I was knocked up with some other fella’s kid. In fact, he asked to marry me right then and there. We had only gone on one date, but that didn’t matter. He was good like that. He raised that kid like his own. And when we had two kids together, he didn’t treat him any differently.”

“Did he live in Peggy’s shadow?”

“I wanna say no, but he did. I never loved anyone like I love Peggy. I may not have been the love of her life, but she was mine.”

“You know, I never wanted anyone to be in my shadow. I wanted Peggy to be with someone she loved and who loved her. I didn’t want my memory to get in the way of that.”

“We don’t get to choose who are to other people or how people see us, kid. People see what they want to see. They looked at Peggy and they thought of you. But it’s not always so bad. Because of you they created S.H.I.E.L.D.”

A shocked look swept across Steve’s face.

“How do you know about that?”

“It’s been all over the news, son. And I was kind of there when Howard and Peggy came up the name. Plus, you carry around a shield. It’s not hard to put two and two together.”

“I see your point.”

Steve looked behind him and saw Sharon standing next to her car watching Steve and Angie talking.

“So, how do you know Sharon?”

“We met when Peggy started to get worse. Peggy had never talked about me in the past, but I guess one night she was wondering where I was. Sharon looked me up, but I didn’t want to see Peggy. I didn’t want to see her in the state she was in. I wasn’t going to help her situation and we hadn’t seen each other in 70 years, it would have been strange to show up looking like an old lady when she was expecting someone who was 25. I kept in touch with Sharon, though. She’d call and tell me when Peggy asked for me. We grew close. She reminds me a lot of Peggy.”

Steve nodded in agreement. They were once again surrounded by silence. Steve could feel Angie shaking. It was getting colder and they had been standing for awhile.

“Hey, would you like to get lunch? Talking to you has really helped. I don’t want to stop.”

“Wow, Captain America wants to have lunch with little ol’ me. I’m flattered.”

“Right now, I’m just some kid from Brooklyn.”

“Yeah, me too. I’ll accept your invitation, but only if you introduce me to the Avengers.”

Steve smiled. 

“Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. Hope you liked this fic. You can find me on tumblr at [ginavstheworld](http://www.ginavstheworld.tumblr.com/)


End file.
